


Draw Near

by Braincoins



Series: Connection-verse [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, First Time Together, Flut, Hand Jobs, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 17:41:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9082729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Braincoins/pseuds/Braincoins
Summary: Shiro and Allura have a few things to talk about, and a lot to learn about each other.





	

**Author's Note:**

> \- Thanks to [pixie_rings](http://archiveofourown.org/users/pixie_rings/pseuds/pixie_rings) for beta reading this for me and dealing with my stammering embarrassment like a pro.
> 
> \- Let me start this off by saying that **YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ THIS**. This _is_ set in the Connection-verse, it _does_ take place immediately after the end of "Components", and while there's some discussion in here that might crop up again in later fics, any necessary information will be repeated in Safe-For-Work form. I will never require someone to read something they might not be comfortable with to understand what's going on. No worries.
> 
> \- That being said, this is a direct continuation of "Components" and the only reason this isn't part of that fic is because I try to keep the Epic Hellfics to the same (approximate) rating as the TV show. So, in a sense, it's like an epilogue to that fic? A sexy, sexy epilogue (I hope).
> 
> \- In case anyone was wondering, Alteans "taste" different than humans. Yay, alien biology! I just don't want anyone to be like "that's not what vaginal fluid tastes like!" and SWEET FUCKING CHAOS I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST SAID THIS.
> 
> \- I'm going to go die of embarrassment now.  
> =====================================

           “Where are we going?” Shiro asked as Allura tugged him along the Castle hallways. They nearly knocked Coran over as he headed back towards the bridge; the advisor just chuckled a little in passing.

            “My quarters,” she answered.

            He tried not to read into that, but the memory of the kisses they’d just been sharing – and the topic of conversation – was still too fresh in his mind. Part of him hoped that… but it’d be a bit of a surprise, if that was really what she was intending. A nice one, but a surprise nonetheless. _And I still haven’t told her… not really_.

            He’d come close. He’d almost said it, but he’d distracted himself with kissing her, because she had been so beautiful and it’d been so long since he’d touched her, even if he couldn’t remember most of it. Thirty sleep cycles. Too long.

            But it’d been necessary, and he understood that. He was still getting used to the feel of his new arm, but it didn’t seem like a sacrilege to touch her with it now. She was hauling him along by the right hand and if it wasn’t quite the same as skin-to-skin contact, at least he didn’t have to worry that he was corrupting her somehow.

            Because the arm _had_ been corrupting him all this time. But that was done with. He’d been cleansed, almost reborn in a sense, and he wouldn’t have to worry so much now. He didn’t have to avoid touching her with his right hand. Hell, his right hand was filled with her energy – hers and Keith’s, which was a little odd to think about – and that had never been anything but good for him. She had given part of her life energy for him, and this arm was now a constant reminder of _that_ , of the people who cared for him and no longer the evil empire that had sought to use him for their own ends.

            The door to her quarters opened for them, and, once inside, the lights came on. She brought up a screen, fingers tapping in a quick command before she sent it away again. “There. All the privacy we could want.”

            “Privacy?” he asked, feeling his heart pick up again. _Settle down. There’s nothing saying that **that** is why she wants to be alone with me. _

            “We have things to talk about.” She looked around and frowned a little, then gestured to the bed. “Please, let’s sit down.”

            He nodded. “Good things to talk about, I hope?” _Maybe I did something else while I was corrupted. Something she didn’t want to mention in front of the others._ His heart beat faster for an entirely less-pleasant reason now. He sat on the foot of the bed.

            She sat next to him and took his hands in her own. “I hope so, too,” she replied. The fear in him started to ebb. She took a deep breath before continuing. “I have had a lot of time to think while you were in stasis. Too much time, perhaps. But some things have been clarified for me in that time, not the least of which is how I feel about you.”

            He almost couldn’t hear her over his own heartbeat. Fear and hope warred with each other.

            She looked down at their hands, and he squeezed them gently, smiling at her reassuringly (he hoped). Her eyes flicked back to him first, and then she lifted her head, cheeks reddening. She licked her lips and said, “I thi-…” She stopped herself and cleared her throat. “I love you.” She exhaled softly, and he felt his smile widen, relief and joy flooding through him now.

            “And I love you, Allura,” he said, glad to be able to say it straight out now and ignoring the heat it brought to his face. “It hurts me that I even tried to hurt you, that I would consider for even the briefest moment –,”

            She laid a finger against his lips. “I know you would never attack me. I trust you. But…” Her smile faded and she dropped her hand back to his. “Well, love complicates our situation.”

            It took him a moment of confusion, but his smile and blush both dwindled when he realized it. “I do tend to… be protective of you,” he admitted.

            “You make rash decisions like bringing Voltron straight to Zarkon,” she reminded him.

            “And I would do it again,” he said immediately.

            She sighed. “And if our situations were reversed, I would do the same. But there may come a time when we have to… to make a choice.”

            He nodded. “We’re fighting a war. Wars come with hard choices.”

            “So, let me be clear then.” She fixed her eyes on his. “If it comes down to saving the universe or saving me, _do not choose me._ I do not want you to do that. Do you understand me?”

            He swallowed hard and nodded. “I understand,” he told her.

            “Promise me.”

            “I promise.”

            “That…?” she prompted.

            He sighed harshly. “I promise that if there is ever a situation where I have to sacrifice you to save the universe, I will…” He had to close his eyes for a moment, to steel himself. He opened his eyes again to look into hers as he forced the lie out, “I will do it. I will choose the universe over you, if I have to. If there is no other way.” She nodded, and he squeezed her hands again. “But you have to know I will do everything in my power to find another way first. I can’t just give up on you.”

            “I know. And I don’t expect you to. Just that, if a way can’t be found, you cannot put me above billions of lives. I don’t want that.”

            He nodded again. “I understand.”

            She smiled softly and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Shiro.”

            He cleared his throat. “Takashi.”

            She blinked as she sat up away from him again. “What was that?”

            “My name,” he said. “My actual name. You might not remember it from back when we first met.”

            She tilted her head ( _so… cute…_ ) and then her eyes widened. “Oh, that’s right! I’m sorry. I’ve gotten so used to ‘Shiro’.”

            “It’s fine. I mean, I don’t mind being called ‘Shiro,’ obviously. Sometimes I think even Keith forgets my real name. Just that, sometimes, it’d be nice to hear my first name. Especially from you.”

            She smiled. “Shall I call you ‘Takashi’ in private, then?”

            “I’d like that, thank you.” He leaned in to kiss her lips, but she leaned away and he stopped. “Is something wrong?”

            “We have something else we need to talk about. Nothing terrible,” she promised, “but I don’t want to get distracted yet.”

            “What else is left? I love you, you love me. I promised not to let my feelings for you override my duty to the universe. Am I supposed to ask the same of you?”

            “Well, you probably should, but that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

            “Well, just to be clear, you should prioritize the universe over me as well. Prioritize my team over me, while we’re at it.”

            “I don’t know if I can make _that_ promise.”

            “You can pilot the Black Lion and form Voltron without me. You’ve proven it. There is, therefore, a back-up Black Lion pilot, but no back-ups for the others. I’m not necessary.”

            “You are!” she insisted.

            He smiled. “Is that your feelings talking?”

            She blushed again. “Maybe a little. But I meant it when I said that the lions were to be piloted by you five, and you alone. I was a temporary replacement, Shi- Takashi,” she corrected herself, “not a permanent one.”

            “Only because a permanent one turned out to be unnecessary, which I’m grateful for. I’d much rather be here, with you and everyone else, even if it means fighting and maybe dying. But if it comes down to it, the reality is that I can be replaced.”

            She tsked a little. “Okay, I will concede your point. I will make the best decision for the team and for the universe, even if it means sacrificing you. But, please, let’s not put me in that situation?”

            “We’ll hope not. So now what else is there to talk about?”

            She took another deep breath. “I love you, Sh… Takashi. And we _are_ fighting a war. We may have all the time in the universe, or we… might not. Whether it is death or a change of heart, what we have may not last forever. And I do not want to squander the time we have. I don’t want to look back and regret leaving things unsaid or undone.”

            “Neither do I,” he agreed, giving her hands another squeeze.

            She glanced over at the door again, and then back to him. Her blush was back full-force as she said, “I want you to stay here with me tonight. I want us to be together, assuming that we are, of course, biologically compatible.”

            He blinked a little. “Are you… asking me to…,” it took his brain a moment to come up with a phrase that didn’t sound crass or juvenile, “…to make love to you?”

            She licked her lips and shifted a little, but held his gaze as she nodded.

            He exhaled all at once, then licked his own lips. “I. Um. I don’t know if…”

            “Are you unready? Unsure? Do you have questions about Altean and human compatibility?” she asked.

            “No, yes, and maybe, in that order?” he offered weakly. She cocked her head again in confusion, and he protested, “Don’t do that. It’s too distractingly cute. Or cutely distracting. I don’t know.” He was feeling hot, and he squirmed a little under her gaze.

            She snorted once, but lifted her head again. “What are you unsure about, Takashi?”

            “Any number of things,” he confessed. “For one thing, it’s been…,” he gave up trying to do the math quickly, “a while since I last…”

            “It’s been over ten thousand years for me,” she reminded him.

            “Okay, I’ll give you that one. And, well, what even makes you think we _are_ compatible? I mean, humans and Alteans, not us specifically.”

            “I… have some suspicions,” she said.

            “Care to elaborate on that?”

            “Not particularly,” she replied with a bright smile.

            “Ooookay.” He cleared his throat. “And I just… I mean, it isn’t that I don’t want to! You’re… you’re beautiful, you’re amazing, and even though the Galra arm is gone, it still feels a little like touching you would be…”

            She stood abruptly. “Takashi.” He shut up instantly. “You need to stop that.”

            “Stop?” He stood also, frowning in confusion. “Stop what? Complimenting you? Telling the truth?”

            She huffed and stormed away from the bed. “ _THAT_. What you were just doing.”

            “What was I doing?”

            “You were…” She paced a little, then finished, “deifying me. You talk about me as if I’m some sort of goddess.”

            “You seem that way to me, sometimes,” he told her, meaning it to be sweet.

            “I’m not a goddess! I’m not perfect! And if that’s the standard you’re holding me to, I have to question whether you really love _me_ at all, or just some idealized image you have in your head!”

            _That_ stung. “You think I don’t love you because I think you’re incredible?”

            “You _think_ you love me, but you don’t, if that’s how you see me,” she insisted.

            “But you _are_ incredible! Literally! Look at this!” He spread his arms to indicate the room around them. “Maybe this is normal for you, but I am on an alien spaceship, in the quarters of an alien princess…”

            She growled a little. “I’m really starting to hate hearing the word ‘alien’,” she warned him.

            “This is all strange and… and semi-magical to me! I didn’t even know alie-… I didn’t know there was life out here in the universe before the Galra captured me and now I’m defending it! I’m defending the entire universe and the most amazing woman I’ve ever met tells me she loves me! How am I supposed to think of that as anything other than ‘incredible’?! How do I just believe that this isn’t some crazy dream I’m having?”

            “So, what, now you’re questioning reality?”

            “Why not? YOU are!” he shot back. “The reality is that I _do_ love you. You, Allura, and not some self-delusion I have. You’re smart and beautiful and strong and you’re just… you’re wonderful, and I can’t even begin to…”

            “Will you listen to yourself?” she yelled. She closed her eyes and made herself take a breath, and he took the opportunity to re-center himself, too, but he kept his eyes open. He watched her and saw her grow just a little bit taller, until she was the same height he was. It was still a little strange to see someone change so much so quickly, and it seemed to just underscore how unbelievable all of this was.

            She came over to him, looking him dead in the eyes. “Takashi, I know that you think it’s romantic to say these things. But I want to know that you’re seeing me for who I am. Just as you want me to call you by your true name, I want you to love the true me. Coran would tell you that I can be brash, that I can be impulsive – and sometimes at inopportune moments. I tend to hold grudges. I waver between pragmatism and idealism, and I never feel like I have a good balance. I am not good at delegating, nor at sharing. I have many more faults, and probably a few I’m not even yet aware of. I am not perfect. I am not a ‘goddess’, and what you think of as ‘romantic’, I hear as an impossible expectation.”

            “I don’t mean it that way,” he promised. “I don’t think of it as an expectation; to me, it’s a descriptor of what you already _are_. I feel so lucky, so… blessed, I suppose, to have you in my life. I feel it every time you smile at me.”

            She smiled just a little now. “Thank you. But I want you to understand. I don’t want to be worshipped; I want to be _loved_.”

            “You want me to stop putting you on a pedestal,” he acknowledged.

            “Putting me on a…?” The head tilt. “An Earth idiom, I assume?” He nodded, and then she did, too, thoughtfully. “I can see how that would make sense. So then, yes. I don’t want to be put on a pedestal, out of reach. I want to be in your arms. I want you to touch me and kiss me and hold me.” She slid her arms around him. “I want to be able to touch and kiss and hold you in return. I want a relationship of equals, of partners.”

            “I want that, too.”

            “So how can I be your equal if I’m this divine goddess?”

            He shrugged. “I’m never not going to be amazed that you love me. I’m never not going to be stunned by your smile. I’m never not going to consider myself lucky to have you. But I will try to remember that you’re …well, I was going to say ‘as human as I am’, but…”

            They both laughed a little. “And I don’t want you to feel as if you can’t touch me,” she told him. “Like you’re sullying some holy relic.”

            “It’s not… quite like that.”

            “Well, what is it like?” she pressed.

            He sighed and tried to think. “I don’t know. Like… like admitting my desire for you is… wrong, somehow.”

            “Why would it be wrong?” she asked gently.

            “I feel like I’m not good enough for you,” he confessed as it came to him. “I’ve felt like a monster all this time, and I’ve only had this arm for a few hours – well, near as I can tell anyway – and I’m not used to the idea that it’s okay now, that I’m not…”

            “Oh, Takashi.” She pulled him in for a tight hug. (Not too tight, thankfully.) “You’re not a monster. You’re not a weapon. You’re a great many things, and you’re no more perfect than I am, but you are most definitely _not_ a monster.” She pressed a long kiss to his cheek, and he closed his eyes to focus on her lips against his skin.

            “Sometimes…” He swallowed thickly. “Sometimes the darkness in me took over my desires. Sometimes it made me want…”

            “It’s gone,” she reminded him.

            But he didn’t want to stop yet. He had to get it out. _No more left unsaid._ “There were times I thought of you as something to possess, something I _had_ to possess, to take and claim and… it was so violent.”

            “You aren’t a violent man.”

            “I’m a soldier.”

            “In a time of war.”

            “I’m a killer.”

            “Only to protect yourself and others.”

            “I attacked you and Keith and Pidge.”

            “That wasn’t you.” She was quick on the counter, every time. She repeated, “You’re not a monster. You’re the man I love.”

            He sighed. “I wish I could see myself the way you see me.”

            “I wish you could, too.” She rubbed his back and pulled away so she could smile sadly at him. “Do not elevate me. Do not lower yourself. You’re a good man. Not perfect, but good.”

            He held her silently.

            “Would it help,” she finally asked, “if I told you about my desire for you?”

            He blinked and licked his lips, then just nodded, not trusting himself to speak yet. She blushed and led him back to the bed to sit down again.

            She took another deep breath. “I’m not sure how it started. No, that’s not true: it started with your smile. That first smile, after that first victory, the first time you all formed Voltron. You looked so confident,” he snorted at that, but she kept going, “so strong, and, to be honest, it was all such a relief to me. I didn’t know you, after all, any of you. I was worried. For a moment, that smile on your face erased my fears.”

            “Not for long, I’m sure,” he commented.

            She chuckled a little. “That’s not the point,” she reminded him. “Everything since I’d awoken had been panic and anxiety and fear; in that moment, it all eased and I was so grateful to you. To all of you, but especially to you, for that smile. And after that, it just… built steadily, I suppose. It would be hard to separate it all out. You were a support for me, a leader to the team, my good and strong and steady Black Paladin. I appreciated you so much.

            “And one day, the others were talking and someone – I think it was Pidge? – commented on how… form-fitting the uniforms are. And there was a general chorus of agreement and some discussion on the matter.” He laughed a little at that. “Don’t laugh! I’m only telling you this because the next time I saw you in your armor, I… well, I sort of stopped to take stock, I suppose.”

            “You checked me out?” he asked, eyebrows going up.

            “I don’t know if I’d say… okay, yes, I checked you out,” she relented, blush deepening. “And it was a very nice view, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

            “Why would I ever mind you saying that?”

            Her smile widened. “It was hard not to wonder what you looked like beneath the uniform. And I started watching you occasionally, in your Earth clothes, and wondering the same thing. I couldn’t do it too often; it was quite the distraction.”

            “I doubt the reality lives up to your imagination.”

            “Well, I hope to compare someday,” she teased, toying with the zipper on his vest.

            “You can if you want,” he told her, trying to keep his breathing steady. She surprised him by unzipping the vest immediately and pushing it back.

            “The shirt, too?” she asked before biting her lip, looking up at him hopefully.

            He closed his eyes. “As long as we’re talking about desires, you biting your lip like that drives me crazy.”

            “Oh. Um. Is that a good thing?”

            “In this case, yes.” He opened his eyes again and found her grinning. “The head tilt you do when you’re confused is adorable; the lip-biting thing is, I don’t know. It’s sexy-cute. Cute-sexy? It’s distracting, how about that?”

            She laughed a little. “So, you never answered my question.”

            “Hm? Oh, right.” Instead of answering in words, he pulled his vest the rest of the way off and then tugged his shirt off over his head. He prepared himself for her to gasp.

            His time in the Galra arena had left its mark on him. Several marks, in fact. He’d done well in protecting his core, so most of them were on his shoulders, his arms (well, arm), and sides. There was still the rake of three scars where that evil witch had clawed him. His back had taken the brunt of the damage, but she couldn’t see that yet.

            He expected surprise, dismay, pity, sympathy, perhaps even a tightly-whispered vow of vengeance. What he hadn’t expected was for her to just start tracing her fingers along his skin in little loops and whirls. Her fingertips were soft, and sometimes there’d be the thin scrape of a fingernail. It tickled a little. She didn’t pay any particular attention to the scars, and didn’t comment when she encountered them. She just followed her fingers with her eyes until she slid her hands around his waist again and scooted in closer so she could run them over his back.

            He closed his eyes and only then remembered, “You’ve seen this before, actually. I forgot.” The night terrors, and her coming to ease him out of them. When he was just starting to admit to himself how much he cared for her. Her hand on his back, a warm anchor to reality.

            “It was dark, and you were in pain. This isn’t the same.” She paused and sounded sheepish as she admitted, “I thought I was happy to be of help to you, and I was, but it was more than that. Thinking back on it, my mind added shades to the way you said my name…”

            “What?” He opened his eyes. “The way I said your name when?”

            “That first time that I shared my energy with you. You closed your eyes and said my name so softly, almost a moan, and when I remember it now, I can’t help feeling… excited. Which makes me feel guilty, because it was relief from the pain and the nightmares for you, not… that.”

            “It was relief, but it might’ve been a bit of that, too,” he told her. “It felt intimate. It felt like… home.” He smiled. “I felt so comforted, so warm, so safe. Every time you share your energy with me, I feel closer to you. Every time you’ve helped me, I’ve fallen for you a little more.”

            “Oh, so now you love me because I’ve drugged you, is that it?” she mock-accused him, grinning. He realized her hands had stopped moving, palms warm against his spine.

            “More like pushed me over a cliff,” he teased back. “But I don’t mean it like that.”

            “I know. I do think that’s sweet.”

            “Thank you.” He leaned in to nuzzle her cheek, and she sighed happily.

            “The kiss confused me,” she admitted.

            “We’ve been over that.” He sat back up again.

            “But it was nice. It was soft and warm, and it was nice to be close to you. Finding out what it actually meant was… a surprise, at first, but then it made sense. And then I wanted to experience it with you as you meant it in the first place. I wanted to learn why it was important to you.”

            “And have you?”

            “I think so, to some degree. It is nice, with you. It’s nice _because_ it’s you.” She paused and bit her lip again briefly. “Sorry. I.” She cleared her throat. “Sometimes, when we’re… what was the term you used?”

            “‘Making out’?” he offered.

            “Yes, that. When we’re ‘making out’, you moan sometimes, at the back of your throat, while we’re still kissing.” He blushed, and blushed harder when she added, “I really like that.”

            “I’m glad. It usually means I really like what’s going on, after all.”

            She beamed. “I worry sometimes I don’t live up to your kissing expectations.”

            “You’re doing just fine,” he assured her. “More than fine, really.”

            “The moans are reassuring for that. And they remind me of you saying my name that first time, and…” She sighed and closed her eyes, then leaned her head forward to rest against his. “Those moans, those soft sounds of pleasure, those are what drift through my mind when I’m alone here and thinking of you. Those are the memories I replay for myself when I wonder what it would be like to have you here with me. An entire night of just those sounds from you would be wonderful. But to imagine, on top of all of that, more kisses, more touches, and a lot less clothing…”

            He cleared his throat and shifted and she sat up immediately, hands starting to pull away from him. “I’m sorry! Have I offended you?”

            “No, no.” He reached out and pulled her back in towards him. “Not at all. ‘Offended’ is very much _not_ the word I would use.”

            “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

            “Only in good ways.”

            “I’m… not sure I understand.”

            “It’s, um…,” he borrowed her word, “exciting, to hear you talk about this.”

            She bit her lip again and he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her cheek. Once she stopped with lip-biting, he moved over to her mouth again. She tried to pull him towards her more but their legs were in the way. Emboldened by her words, by the recent memory of her invitation into her bed, by her clearly wanting him closer, he pulled her onto his lap. She made a startled sound against his lips, but settled herself happily against him and deepened the kiss.

            He threaded the fingers of his left hand into her hair, right pressing against the small of her back to make sure she wouldn’t fall and to keep her close to him. She was so warm. She moved her hands to his shoulders, then slid them around behind his neck. He moaned and she stopped kissing him to giggle, and he just kissed her again and again, peppering her lips and cheek with kisses, down to her jawline and the part of her throat not covered by the high neck of her cape. He unfastened it and let it flutter to the floor so he could kiss more of her skin.

            She sighed, happily this time, and brushed her fingertips up and down the back of his neck. “I’ve dreamed of moments like this,” she told him.

            “So have I,” he murmured, kisses growing longer and deeper. He’d leave marks on her if he wasn’t careful.

            “And many other moments besides.” She slid her hands back around to cup his face as she leaned away from him. She pulled his head up and leaned in to kiss him. He met her halfway, and they didn’t stop until they both needed air more than each other for the moment.

            As he caught his breath, she murmured, “So, I _am_ curious about this.”

            “This?” he asked between breaths.

            She shifted her hips, rubbing against him, and he hissed in a breath. He’d been paying attention to the warmth of her in his arms, to the taste of her lips, to his increasing lack of air. He’d barely registered the increasing bulge in his pants, mostly because she hadn’t mentioned it… until now.

            “Ah, that,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m sorry if it’s…”

            “Does it indicate a state of arousal?” she asked formally.

            He looked at her for a moment and then laughed.

            “Why are you laughing?” She sounded a little insulted, but he couldn’t help it.

            “Why are you being so formal about it?”

            “Well, I thought it might be less embarrassing for us, if we discussed …compatibility in biological terms.”

            “That might make it worse, actually.”

            She huffed in annoyance again but didn’t get off his lap. She looped her arms back around his neck and pouted at him. “Well, you _do_ want to find out if we’re compatible, don’t you?”

            “Very much so.”

            She grinned just a little. “Does this mean you’re accepting my invitation to stay with me?”

            “Yes,” he said, kissing her quickly.

            “Good!” Before he knew what hit him, she’d pulled her hands back to his shoulders and pushed him back onto the bed. She grinned down at him like a cat with a new toy. “So, let’s find out what we’re dealing with, shall we?”

            He blinked and then laughed again, trying to ignore his surely-red face. “Well, someone’s suddenly impatient,” he teased. He felt a little uneasy still, but it was hard to be too uncomfortable when she was acting like this.

            “Well, I like learning,” she said, rolling off to one side so she could get at his belt. “Especially about you. And especially about this.”

            “If you want my pants completely off, the boots have to go next,” he reminded her helpfully.

            “Yes, yes, I do know how undressing works.” He lifted his hips as she tugged at the belt and she was able to get it out from underneath him to toss it aside. “Do your pants _have_ to be entirely removed?”

            He cleared his throat. There was no point in hoping his blush would go away at this point. “Technically, no, but it’s a lot more comfortable for everyone if they are. Besides…” He hesitated.

            “Besides?” she asked, pausing with her hands over his fly.

            He had to make himself say it. “…I want to feel your skin next to mine. Everywhere. As much as I can get of it.” He’d never had this much trouble admitting his desires before, but setting aside the whole ‘pedestal’ notion (and she might’ve had a point there), he still remembered the violence that had wound its way into his longing for her. Even with the source of that darkness gone, even having been told he’d been cleansed, being free of it was still new to him. He wasn’t sure yet. The aftereffects lingered in his mind.

            She just smiled and worked on getting his pants open. Once again, he helpfully lifted his hips so she could tug the pants down his legs. She stood when she reached the end of the bed again and bent to pull his boots off in order to free him of the pants entirely. When she was done with her work, she tsked as she took in the sight of him, clad in nothing but his boxer briefs. “How many layers do you need?”

            “Do Alteans not wear underwear?” he asked, intrigued by the notion.

            “I’m just frustrated,” she told him instead.

            “No, no, no, now I need to know. You’re learning about me, but I want to learn about you, too.” He sat up and reached for her hand, trying to tug her down to him.

            She let herself be tugged back onto the bed. “I suppose that’s only fair,” she allowed as she settled in next to him.

            “So…” He paused, looking over her dress. “I have actually no idea how to get you out of all of that.”

            She laughed and sat up, removing her bangles. “Oops,” she said, “Let’s make sure these are muted, unless an emergency comes up.” She double-tapped each earring and they flashed once and dimmed slightly. “It’s unlikely anyone was listening in. Coran would’ve made sure of that,” she told him.

            “Did he know about your …plans?”

            “I didn’t tell him about them ahead of time, but he saw and heard where we were headed. He’s a smart man, and he looks out for me.”

            “That he does,” he agreed. He watched her pull the long blue oversleeves off next, then she picked up the cape from where it had fallen earlier, and went over to her vanity to set them all down. She reached around to unhook her belt.

            He just propped himself up on his elbows to watch her disrobe. Even with her back to him, he was looking forward to the show. “I’m still not sure this isn’t a dream,” he informed her.

            “How do I convince you?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him and smirking just a little.

            He grinned. “Well, that’s not helping.”

            “What?”

            “You looking at me all seductively like that.”

            She laughed as more and more of her skin came into view. “Is that what I was doing?”

            “You _know_ that’s what you were doing.”

            “You still haven’t answered the question,” she sing-songed.

            “I don’t think I want to. I want to see how this dream ends.”

            “Mm, so do I,” she agreed. “And are you satisfied on the Altean underwear matter?” She gestured down to herself, in shimmering silky panties and nothing else.

            He arched an eyebrow, taking in the view. Smooth, largely unblemished skin, ample breasts, and legs that went on forever. “Very.” He cleared his throat, glad to see that he wasn’t the only one blushing.

            She rejoined him, crawling up onto the bed to lie on her side next to him. He laid back down as she settled in. “So.” She draped a hand on his stomach. “I think I know what’s going to happen, but I could be wrong. Humans are _just_ similar enough to be tricky.”

            “Oh, is that what we are? Tricky?” He reached over to pet her arm with his left hand, enjoying the feel of skin he didn’t normally get to touch.

            “Very,” she parroted back at him. “I assume there’ll be lots of kissing.”

            “Absolutely. Everywhere,” he confirmed, still running his hand up and down her arm.

            “And touching.”

            “Already working on that.”

            “I noticed.” She kissed his nose. “And, at some point, this,” she slid her hand down, over his underwear, to rest atop his erection, “will be inside me, I hope?”

            It was those last two words, more than anything else, that blanked his mind for a second. He cleared his throat to buy time. “That’s… generally how it goes, yes.” His restarting brain brought up a point of order. “Um, do Alteans use contraception?”

            “Oh!” She smiled. “How considerate of you. Yes, we do, but only when both partners are fertile. And I’m not right now,” she said matter-of-factly. “It will be many movements yet until I am in my next fertile period.” She tilted her head a little. “Why, are you?”

            “Uh, as far as I know, yes.”

            “Oh. Did you want to wait until you aren’t?”

            “That would take decades, if ever,” he informed her. She was shocked, and he sat up to explain human fertility.

            “Really? Well, no wonder you asked about contraception!” she said when he was done. “All Alteans have fertility cycles that they go through many times throughout their lives. Both partners have to be in their fertile periods for conception to occur, and even then, it’s not guaranteed, only much more likely.”

            “Is it like heat then?”

            “Heat? Temperature has nothing to do with it.”

            And that required another talk, and he had to root around in the corners of his mind to find the word “estrus” before she got it.

            “Oh, it’s only like estrus in the fertility sense. There is no increased sex drive. Well, not _that_ increased, anyway.” She giggled cutely. “If you were hoping I’d lock you up in here for days and nights on end, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

            “Just as well; I’m not sure I’d survive.” He grinned and then asked, “So, what you’re saying is that you’re one hundred percent certain you won’t get pregnant.”

            “Yes. And if you had any sort of disease, the pod would have taken care of it by now.”

            “Even though I’m human and not Altean?”

            “Yes,” she said. She sounded certain, so he gave up on it. The impromptu sex ed class had taken some of the edge off, but now things were getting awkward again. “Can I see you?” she asked nervously. “I mean, your… Oh, what’s a non-medical term for this?” She moved her hand back to his flagging erection.

            “Non-medical? Oh jeeze, there’s only about a billion.” He cleared his throat. “‘Cock’ is a common one.” And, of course, the one he’d fantasized about her using. “It’s not for polite company,” he warned.

            “Well, one doesn’t typically discuss this sort of thing in polite company. At least, not among Alteans.”

            “Not among humans either,” he told her. “I just want to avoid any more misunderstandings. The kissing one was embarrassing enough.”

            She laughed a little. “I will forever be mortified by that. But you still didn’t answer my question.”

            “Yes, you can see me, but only if I can see you in return,” he told her.

            “That seems perfectly reasonable.” She pulled her hand away from him to start removing her panties, and it took all his self-control to focus on taking off his own underwear rather than just watching that last skimpy piece of fabric slide down those gorgeous legs. He kicked the boxer briefs free and didn’t bother seeing where they landed because he was more interested in the tuft of white curls between her legs. He let his eyes drift from there up along her body again, back to her face.

            She was doing the head tilt again as she looked at him, and he was torn between being overwhelmed with cute and worried about her confusion. “This is… interesting.”

            “Well, it’s only partially…”

            “No, I understand that.” And sex ed class was back in session. It took some time to figure out that his foreskin was causing the head tilt, and class was temporarily halted when she decided to get a little more “hands-on” than he was expecting. He stopped her before things got too far along, but there for a moment – multiple moments – he fell back to the bed and closed his eyes and tried not to think about the fact that an alien princess was stroking his cock on a spaceship because that was all just way too weird to be real. He focused on her name and on her touch – soft and hesitant at first, then with increasing curiosity and enthusiasm – until he realized they actually should pause or explanations were never going to happen.

            She pulled her hand away (with a slight pout, he noticed), and let him catch his breath, and he licked his lips and pushed himself back up to his elbows. “So, I think it’s my turn to explore a bit, hm?”

            She brightened. “If you like.”

            “Oohhh, I would very much like,” he affirmed. So far, everything he was seeing was in line with his expectations, at least biologically. “You’re even more beautiful than I dreamed.”

            She blushed as she laid on her back for him. After all the time she’d spent touching his skin, finally he got to return the favor. “My hands aren’t as soft as yours,” he apologized as he drifted his fingertips across her collarbone.

            “I like it,” she said. “They’re… textured.”

            “They’re rough,” he corrected, working his way down.

            “They’re _yours_. That’s what matters to me.”

            He teased one of her nipples, and she inhaled sharply. He looked up to her face, but she just nodded and licked her lips, and he let his hand – his real hand – touch more of her breast, cupping it and feeling the warmth of her in his palm. He bent his mouth to her other breast, licking once at her nipple while watching her face. She gasped and smiled, so he kept it up, only sucking lightly and not biting, just being gentle and enjoying the sound of her.

            He slid his hand away, down her abdomen, over to her hip. He caressed every part of her thigh, and playfully tickled behind her knee until she told him to stop that (with a giggle that said he didn’t have to, but he did anyway). He ran his hand up along her inner thigh and softly into the curls, to find… nothing. He stopped what he was doing to look.

            “Something wrong?” she asked, sounding a tad breathless.

            “I’m used to there being a clitoris here.”

            “What is that?”

            Sex ed class, back in session once more. But this time, class let out quickly as she caught on to what he was describing. “Oh, we have a similar pleasure structure, but it’s internal.”

            “Internal?”

            She nodded. “The farther, um,” her blush deepened, “inside you go, the more nerve endings there are, ending in a pleasure structure deep within.”

            “I’m guessing it’s farther in than I can reach?” he asked.

            “With your fingers, anyway,” she commented casually, despite the red in her face. “But are you saying that it’s an _external_ structure for humans?” When he nodded, she shuddered. “That seems impractical.”

            He shrugged. “It’s normal for us.”

            “Does it bother you? My lack of a ‘clitoris’?”

            “No. I just wanted to know what I should be doing down here, and you’ve given me a pretty good idea. If you don’t mind?”

            She smiled. “I don’t mind at all.”

            He was careful at first: just one finger into her, and he was pleased (and more than a little relieved) to find her slick and warm and otherwise much as he would’ve expected. Every touch inside her made her shiver a little. Starting at the entrance and running his fingertip in elicited a small, quiet groan that got steadily louder as he went, as if he were turning up her volume. A second finger made her bite her lip a little, and he slid back up so he could kiss her lips and watch her face as he experimented with different touches in different places. He wanted to know every possible way to please her. A soft, almost accidental, brush in one spot followed by immediately rubbing that spot hard made her grip the bedclothes, and he kissed her cheek and double-checked that that was good, and she panted an affirmative, so he made a mental note.

            “Stop, stop, stop,” she eventually whimpered, and he did so, pulling his hand away immediately and letting her catch her breath. She licked her lips, eyes closed, chest heaving.

            “Good stop or bad stop?” He licked one of his fingers experimentally, and wasn’t surprised to find she tasted wonderful, if strange: she was almost… smoky? A little sweet. Rich. It was hard to pin down into words right now. She tasted like dessert wine.

            “Gooood,” she practically purred. “Too good. Almost far, far too good.”

            He grinned, pleased at her pleasure, and kissed her cheek and her lips (just briefly, since she was catching her breath) and her neck.

            “Do you have a casual name for…?” she began.

            “Orgasm?” he guessed. “Climax? Come?”

            “Come? As in to move closer or towards the speaker?”

            “I suppose.”

            She thought about that. “I like that. I like the idea of coming closer to you.”

            “We wouldn’t say it like that. We’d just say coming. Come, came, etc. It conjugates the same…”

            “Please, let’s not have an English lesson on top of everything else.”

            “You started it!” he pointed out, before kissing her shoulder. “And I thought you liked learning. I certainly don’t mind teaching.”

            “You’re a quick student yourself,” she murmured in response. She’d resumed tracing little spirals along his skin, and he shivered lightly.

            “I am when I have a deep interest in the subject.” He was kissing along her neck again, lapping at her pulse.

            “Mmmm, _how_ deep?”

            “Bottomless,” he whispered against her ear.

            She laughed. “You’re coming perilously close to that pedestal nonsense again,” she warned.

            “Sorry.” He brushed some hair away from her face. “Think we’re familiar enough with the subject matter now to…?”

            “Let’s find out.” She grinned and pushed him over onto his back again. “Do you mind it like this?”

            “Not at all,” he said, clearing his throat when his voice broke a little. He smiled again, and she leaned down to kiss him briefly.

            “Good. I want as much of you as I can get.” Her saying that didn’t help his blushing, but he forgot about embarrassment when she started stroking him again.

            “That’s… not really necessary, I don’t think,” he told her.

            “Just making sure.” She threw her leg over him and worked to position herself. He just watched her – this incredible woman, this princess, so accomplished, so brave and beautiful – as she aligned herself with him. It still didn’t seem real. It shouldn’t have been real, but it was. And then she eased herself down onto him, and the thought of her title and position melted away.

            “Allura,” he moaned, shifting slightly for a more comfortable position. He laid his hands on her thighs and let her continue to adjust as necessary. He let his head fall back and his eyes close until she gasped happily and he raised his head again to see her biting her lip. “Oh god.”

            “Mmm.” She rocked her hips a little and grinned when he moaned again. “Takashi, you feel so good.”

            It was just like in every fantasy of her he’d had. “Oh god, keep saying my name.”

            She leaned forward and whispered, “Takashi,” and he wrapped his arms around her to kiss her hard. She bucked her hips again and his lips broke away from hers at the motion. She pushed herself back up, and he let his hands fall along her skin, down to her hips.

            He thrust his own hips up towards her, and won another gasp from her. And they were grinning at each other, and now it was like they were in an unspoken contest: who could wring the most interesting sounds from the other? She bit her lip, he rocked his hips, they took turns moaning each other’s name. Eventually he gave in and let her set the pace and rhythm, and she celebrated her victory by not making either of them wait long. She built up speed quickly, almost desperately after all their playing and exploration of one another.

            He sat up to wrap her in his arms, to feel her sweat-slick skin slide along his own. She gripped his shoulders and exhaled his name hot and heavy against his ear, and he tried to keep himself in check just a bit longer with flight vector calculations in his head because dammit, she was going to come first if he had to douse himself in ice water.

            She dropped her head to his shoulder, panting, and he managed to grunt her name out between clenched teeth, almost pleading. She threw her head back, that long gorgeous hair cascading down her back as wet heat engulfed him, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. He was distantly aware of the bite of her nails into his flesh, but it just made the pleasure that much sweeter in comparison. She was still tight around him, death grip on his shoulders, when he finished, and he fell back to the bed with her atop him, trying to breathe around the exertion and her hair.

            She finally tossed her head, then tugged the rest of her hair back before rolling off him to stare up at the ceiling. He missed having her on top of him, but he was glad of the easier breathing. And then she rolled onto her side to snuggle up against him. “Mmm, that was nice.”

            “Nice?” he asked, smiling over at her. “That was…”

            She put a finger against his lips. “ _Very_ nice.”

            He kissed the finger. “Incredible.”

            She huffed again and dropped her hand to his chest, resting over his heart. “You see what happens when you let your ‘goddess’ down off her pedestal?”

            “Good incentive,” he agreed. “Thank you.”

            She beamed and kissed his cheek. “So, I have another question.”

            “Oh, god.”

            “Some Alteans require rest in between bouts of love-making, but others do not.”

            “I require rest,” he told her immediately. “Or at least, you know, recharging. And air.”

            She giggled. “I was just asking.”

            He kissed her. “Just a little bit. You’ll survive. But if you truly need me, I can find ways to… occupy the time until then?” He slid his hand over her hip. “Learn some more about my favorite subject?”

            “Well, I’d hate to get between you and your education,” she said softly.

            He chuckled. “I love you, Allura.”

            “And I love you, Takashi. And we’re going to save the universe together.”

            “Together,” he agreed with a smile.

           

           

 


End file.
